Monthly Archives: June 2010

Got off of work and went out to my car last weekend. It was
about covered in seagull crap. Couldn’t even see out of the
windshield. There’s no way one bird could do that. Or one human.
Which reminds me of a police report I read the other day. I’m not
going to tell you what it said. For one, I can’t figure out what
the guy was doing. For another, it was too gross. The guy told the
cops he was a freak. I’ll leave it at that.

Anyway, no one seagull could’ve bombed my car like that. There
had to be a whole flock of them hanging out on the tideflats,
slurping clams, worms and other slimy beach fare, along with an
occasional peanut butter and jelly sandwich from the ferry
tourists. Stuffed, they go on a strafing run.

“Check out that green Honda down there. We haven’t hit that one
in a couple days.”

They weave between the government center and Chase Bank
building, shoot the gap down Fourth Street, pull up just before
smacking the Kitsap Sun wall and let loose. Pfffflllaaaaattt. By
firing on the fly, they can hit the sides as well as the top.

Seems the state’s eastbound engineers weren’t talking with the
westbound engineers on the Nalley Valley interchange in Tacoma.

According to a Tacoma News Tribune
story, the Highway 16 off-ramp to Sprague Avenue was built in
the wrong spot. When the highway was changed from two lanes to
three, engineers needed to shift the off-ramp to make room for the
extra lane. But that wasn’t communicated between the design teams
and the engineering plan went out with the off-ramp in the wrong
place. Contractors followed the plan.

The mistake was caught back in October when the off-ramp was 90
percent completed, but it didn’t come to light until now. Engineers
spent the winter redesigning. Last week, the pavement was torn up.
A contingency fund will cover the $890,000 to remove pavement,
lower the grade and rebuild the offramp.

Nobody will be disciplined, but new safeguards are being put in
place so nothing like that happens again, said Kevin Dayton,
administrator for the state Department of Transportation’s Olympic
Region,

“Mistakes do get made in engineering and construction,” Dayton
said. “We generally catch it in the field. … The big embarrassment
is it got built. That seldom, if ever, happens.”

Washington State Ferries workers had enough of Bob Distler, the
Washington State Transportation Commission’s expert on ferry
matters. They turned him in to their bosses, who wrote him a letter
saying to leave them alone, according to a story
last week in the San Juan Journal.

Steve Rodgers, WSF’s director of marine operations, wrote to
Distler on June 18 that, “I … want to be sure you understand that
harassment or hostility towards WSF employees engaged in their
duties will not be tolerated. WSF has the authority to deny passage
to anyone who engages in disruptive behavior and will exercise that
authority if necessary.”

The letter was in response to May 14 incident in which Distler,
who lives in the San Juans, said he was short-tempered with a
worker about how the boat was being boarded in Anacortes. He later
apologized.

It wasn’t the first time it had happened, according to WSF
spokeswoman Marta Coursey.

“It had happened on more than one occasion and they wanted to
make sure Bob didn’t do it again,” the paper quotes Coursey as
saying.

Distler admitted he “can get a little heated at times” and that
he’s a “brusque person.”

There are few people who know more about ferries than Distler,
which is an asset for the Transportation Commission, most of whom
don’t live in the Puget Sound area. I’d even bet he was right in
his dispute with the workers, but that doesn’t excuse being a jerk.
He’d win more people to his way of thinking if he was nicer to
them.

Distler’s commission term expires June 30. He said he has
applied for reappointment.

People in Coupeville on Whidbey Island say there’s no such town
as Keystone, and they want to change the name of the ferry terminal
there to Coupeville. Sure, Coupeville’s on the other side of the
island from the terminal, but it’s a skinny island. We’re only
talking a few miles here. Plus, they say people get the Keystone
terminal mixed up with the Kingston terminal. I always write
Keyport when I mean Keystone. In fact, I already did it once in
this item.

Anyway, there’re trying to round up support and get it to the
Washington State Transportation Commission, which is in charge of
naming all things transportation — ferries, bridge, roads, even
terminals. The town council and chamber of commerce are hoping to
get the name changed at the transportation commission’s July
meeting. Then Washington State Ferries will change the name of the
route to the Port Townsend-Coupeville route, they say. That would
give Coupeville more visibility as a tourist destination, they say,
what with search engines and such.

Coupeville is a pretty cool old town, I must say. It’s like a
mini Port Townsend. I’d just as soon it stay like it is, but the
business folks want to stay in business and they think this would
help. Guess I can’t blame them.

Also at the July meeting, I think they’ll pick a name for the
second new 64-car ferry that will be on that route. Whidbey’s
recommendation, fortunately, didn’t make the list. It was
Squi-qui.

Out of that bunch, I like Cross Sound Express the best. Kingston
Flyer’s pretty good, too. They’re all a little boring, though. I
think you guys could come up with something more entertaining.The
port wants people to be creative, think about what the service is
all about, and what name would be a good descriptor of that
service. And have some fun with it.

You can reach the port at (360) 297-3016,
paxferry.info@portofkingston.org, www.portofkingston.org, on
Twitter at @KingstonPOF or on Facebook at Kingston Passenger-only
Ferry.